Formerly the non-partisan watchdog of the 2010 US Census, and currently an opinion blog that covers all things political, media, foreign policy, globalization, and culture…but sometimes returning to its census/demographics roots.

Even though Robert Groves’ confirmation hearing to become the next director of the U.S. Census Bureau took place more than three weeks ago (23 days to be precise), the United States Senate still has not scheduled a vote to confirm Mr. Groves for his new position. This unnecessary delay is just another example of the bureaucratic nightmare that has long been (and most likely will always be) the United States Congress’s lackadaisical work schedule.

MyTwoCensus believes that Senator Tom Carper and his colleagues on the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security that is responsible for the 2010 Census must urge the rest of the Senate to schedule an immediate vote to confirm Mr. Groves. For each day that Robert Groves is not officially in charge of the Census Bureau, the American people lose out on the possibility of achieving the most organized and best managed decennial headcount possible. A ship without a captain is bound to run into serious problems, and the Census Bureau is no different.

As budget crises loom throughout the nation, state legislatures are being forced to determine which programs and services they should cut to close budget gaps. The below report comes from Spanish language newspaper La Prensa based in Toledo, Ohio:

Special Policy Alerts:Ohio Latino Affairs Commission budget may be cut by 45 percent

The Ohio Senate has proposed a 45 percent budget cut from the Fiscal Year 2009 budget of the Ohio Latino Affairs Commission. This is more than double the proposed cuts to other agencies. Only one other agency has been cut as much as we have been. Also, the Ohio Commission on Minority Health is to be cut by 32% if the current version of the budget is adopted.

If this proposal passes, it will effectively eliminate all programming, including: OLAnet, Census 2010 Outreach, Project OPEN, and the Building Blocks Education Campaign as well as eliminate 25% of our workforce (1 out of 4 staff).

The finance committee is planning to vote on the budget at tomorrow’s hearing at 2:30 p.m.

The full Senate will vote on Wednesday or Thursday, June 3 or 4, 2009.

Overall, MyTwoCensus is pleased with the selection of Mr. Groves as President Obama’s nominee for Census Director. In particular, we are glad that he plans to focus significant efforts on recruiting highly qualified individuals to join the Census Bureau. However, our main concern about Mr. Groves is not over his ability to remain non-partisan (we are confident that he will stay true to his word). Rather, we are worried that Groves will have difficulty cleaning up the mess that has been made of the Census Bureau in time for the 2010 Census. With antiquated procedures, failing technology and incompetent beaurocrats awaiting him, Groves faces significant challenges that will be extremely difficult to overcome before the decennial headcount. While Groves is an accomplished academic and has successfully managed smaller operations, we are yet to see him prove himself on such a grand scale of leadership as he must do in the very near future. With 12,000 permanent employees and 1.4 million temporary workers joining the Census Bureau’s team for the 2010 count, Robert Groves must carefully preside over his agency and put politics and public relations aside by holding all individuals accountable for their actions.

Click HERE to check out the official memo and video (though the latter appears to be a dud as we couldn’t get it to work on PCs or Macs) about Robert Groves’ Senate confirmation hearing that is now less than 9 hours away!

For those people who are interested, this hearing will be airing live from 9:30am-11:30am EST on C-SPAN 2. (Stream the video live on your computer using the links on the RIGHT SIDE OF THIS PAGE!)

MyTwoCensus will be providing live updates throughout the day.

As there is another hearing scheduled for 2:30pm in the same room, we don’t expect Groves’ hearing to extend past lunch time.